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‘Ideal’ spot opened for Greenhorne & O’Mara

Friday, March 3, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo photo courtesy Greenhorne & O’Mara Greenhorne & O’Mara, an engineering consulting company previously based in Greenbelt, has moved to this new three-story, 64,900-square-foot building in Laurel in the new Konterra at Sweitzer Lane business park.

The company’s move in December from a smaller building in Greenbelt reflects recent expansion of operations in several areas of the country, said John Healey, G&O’s chairman, president and CEO. He said the firm was founded in Prince George’s County 55 years ago and now has 16 offices in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast.

‘‘I’m pleased to say that not only is our national headquarters located in the county, but we’ve been a part of the development of Prince George’s County over the years, providing transportation, civil and environmental engineering,” Healey said. The company is now ‘‘ideally located in the heart of the Baltimore-Washington corridor.”

The three-story, 64,900-square-foot headquarters is the second building in the Konterra at Sweitzer Lane Office Park. The park will eventually include about 250,000 square feet of building space, according to a company statement.

Over the past two years, Konterra Realty LLC of Beltsville helped G&O develop the new building.

G&O has 200 employees in Laurel and a total workforce of 614.

According to its Web site, its regional accomplishments include the site infrastructure engineering for FedEx Field in Landover, master planning and engineering for Leisure World retirement community in Silver Spring, and the design for the infrastructure for the headquarters of the Maryland Department of Transportation at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Linthicum.

‘Lifestyle centers’shape Montgomery

A newly released study of the characteristics of 144 large shopping centers in Montgomery County indicates that ‘‘lifestyle centers” that combine shopping and ambiance are shaping the county’s retail landscape.

The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission released the study as a resource for planners, real estate professionals and the public.

Historically, development of the shopping centers has followed residential development patterns, with most in the southern and eastern areas of the county along major transportation routes.

The report includes 81 neighborhood centers, 48 community centers, nine regional shopping centers, four super-regional centers and two power centers.

Westfield Shoppingtown Montgomery in Bethesda is the largest shopping center with 1.2 million square feet of space and one of the four super regional centers. Other super-regional centers — defined as having at least three full-line department stores — are White Flint Mall in North Bethesda, Westfield Shoppingtown in Wheaton and Lakeforest mall in Gaithersburg.

The two power centers are in the Gaithersburg vicinity: the 270 Center and the Milestone Center. Power centers have anchors that sell ‘‘hard-line” products and are ‘‘category killers,” which sell a range of products within a specific market, eliminating the need to shop at multiple stores. The report offers Petsmart as an example of a category killer.

Kane to buildninth EagleBank

Kane Construction Inc. of Rockville will construct the ninth branch of EagleBank Inc., which is headquartered in Bethesda.

The new branch will be at 5425 Wisconsin Ave. in the redevelopment retail project Chevy Chase Center. Kane projects completion next month.

Forrester awardedVerizon contract

Forrester Construction Co. of Rockville has been awarded a three-year ‘‘master zone” contract to provide general contracting services in the region with Verizon Communications Inc., including an option for a two-year extension.

Verizon owns more than 22 major properties and leases numerous other facilities locally. A master zone contract bypasses the need for a prequalifying process for each new construction project, said Frank Pinto, Forrester’s head of business development.

Scheer assistsSupernus, Iomai

Scheer Partners Inc. of Rockville has helped two bio-pharma companies, Supernus Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Rockville and Iomai Corp. of Gaithersburg, maintain their base operations in Maryland.

Scheer helped restructure and extend leases for Supernus on its 44,500-square-feet facility and for Iomai on its 34,760-square-foot office.

The new lease arrangement allows Iomai to reduce costs to conduct more research and development of its patch delivery technology for vaccines, according to company information.

Supernus needed a new lease structure because it recently became a new entity consisting of the facilities and many employees from the former Shire Laboratories Inc. at the same location.

Washington Plazabuildings sold

Washington Plaza I & II, with nearly 200,000 square feet of office space at 8903 and 8905 Presidential Parkway, Upper Marlboro, has been sold to MTM Builder Developer for $25.5 million.

Grubb & Ellis Co. of Washington, D.C., represented the seller, G&I IV Washington Plaza LLC, which purchased the buildings in 2003 for $21.3 million.

Commercial real estate newsitems may be mailed to: Steve Berberich, The Business Gazette, 1200 Quince Orchard Blvd., Gaithersburg, MD 20878; e-mailed to sberberich@gazette.net; or faxed to301-670-7183.